No Emergency Exit (4/21); Merlin Modern AU
Title: No Emergency Exit (4/21)
Authors: mydoctortennant
Pairings: Arthur/Gwen, Merlin/Morgana
Warnings: None for this chapter.
Disclaimer: Not real. Despite birthday wishes and night time prayers to Santa (all Hail Amy Pond!) Merlin still isn't mine!
Rating: And with this chaper it jumps up to MA-15
Summary: Sometimes relationships just don't work in order. Or so they find out when one mistake leads to a life altering experience.
Author Notes: For the lovely noodlesishere; this is a modern AU based loosely off of the Abby/Luka storyline in ER series 12/13. Some medical info I have taken from ER, so it's totally their fault if it's wrong! Other stuff I researched myself, which may not be 100% correct but I tried my hardest =]
Also; totally OUT of my comfort zone with this, so I worked extra hard. Hope it pays off.
Thanks to mustbethursday3 for reading over it for me (and suggesting Costa should sponser me for mentioning it so much XD) and purely_distel for the name =]
My Merlin Prompts Table
| Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Part Four
Gwen didn’t wait around for Arthur at the end of her shift; instead she headed into the nearest Tesco express to pick up the groceries for dinner. She’d already ordered Merlin out of the flat until gone ten so she could break the news to her father without the other nurse doing it for her.
She loved Merlin dearly, she did, but there were some skills he didn’t possess.
Once she’d bought the groceries she required, she headed back to the hospital in time for Arthur to finish; “Ready to go?” she asked resting the shopping bags on the desk. She leant over it to see what case he’d had; little old lady had fallen and broken her arm. Poor woman.
“Let me just sign off on this,” he did so, passing the chart back to one of the less senior doctors who took it without debate, “And we’re good to go,” he picked up the shopping bag that Gwen had left in one hand, picking up his bag and jacket in the other.
“I can carry that,” Gwen said, reaching for the Tesco bag only to have Arthur whip it out of her grasp.
“What sort of guy would I be if I made my pregnant girlfriend carry the shopping?” He stopped for a second, putting all the bags down on the floor to pull his jacket on over the scrub top he’d acquired over the shift.
“It’s not that heavy,” she reasoned as the automatic doors of the hospital closed behind them. She made to pick the bag up again but Arthur got there first, “Ready for this?”
“No. You?”
“No,” Arthur swung his work bag onto his back, freeing up his hand to take Gwen’s, interlocking her fingers with his as they walked towards the tube station. The grip he had serving to give some reassurance that he would make it through the night alive and in one piece.
-
“Hi, Mr Leodegrance? Come on in,” Gwen heard Arthur greet as she continued to prepare dinner. The vegetables were ready, the lamb she’d had in the freezer was cooked to near perfection and to top it all off she’d gotten her father’s favourite wine to butter him up.
“Please call me Tom, Arthur.”
“Tom, it’s nice to meet you,” he held out his hand to shake Tom’s, the older man accepting the gesture with a welcoming hand.
“You too, Arthur,” So far so good, Gwen thought to herself lifting the lid on the boiling vegetable pan to stop it from boiling over.
“Gwen’s in the kitchen,” Arthur offered as he lead Tom down the hallway into the small kitchen, “I’ll go set the table,” he said, grabbing three lots of cutlery from the draw and disappearing into the lounge come dinning room.
“He seems nice,” Tom said as he pulled Gwen into a hug. She abandoned the cooking for a second to indulge him. It had been too long since she’d seen him and doing so now made her realise how much she missed him. He didn’t live to far away, but with her schedule and everything that had been going on recently she’d not found the time to set aside to see him.
“He’s more than nice, Dad,” Gwen laughed, squeezing her father as the alarm beeped on the oven, “Oh, just in time. I’ll just dish up, if you want to go and sit at the table?”
“Okay, pumpkin,” he kissed the top of her head and released her, leaving her with three hot plates and a lamb roast to serve.
-
“This smells fantastic, sweetheart,” Tom applauded as Gwen put his plate down in front of him, “Really amazing.”
“Looks good too,” Arthur said, bringing in his own plate from the kitchen and sitting at the table. He flashed Gwen a look, smirking slightly. Gwen rolled her eyes and sat herself opposite Arthur, her Dad facing them both from the other side.
“Well then I hope it tastes as good.”
“You know,” Tom said as he started to cut into his lamb and paiing it with some vegetables, “I have no idea where she gets her culinary skills from,” he admitted, tasting the cuisine and hummed satisfactorily, “Certainly doesn’t get it from me.”
“I’m a complete disaster in the kitchen,” Arthur added, running a potato around in his gravy with a smile in Gwen’s direction.
“He asked me was a tsp was,” Gwen said, assuming the answer obvious.
Tom looked at her with mock confusion, “A tsp?” he laughed, “Oh dear,” he looked at Arthur, mirth in his eyes and laughed again.
Arthur felt at ease as he happily stuffed himself with the meal Gwen had slaved over, “It’s not something that comes naturally.”
“What else are women for, eh?” Tom jested, “Cooking and birthing children,” Gwen choked on the piece of meat she had just put in her mouth. She coughed slightly, chewed and swallowed as she picked up her glass of water and drink some, “You alright, darling?”
“Yeah, fine. Just went down the wrong way.”
“That’s what you get when you try and breathe and eat at the same time,” Arthur teased. To his surprise Tom also snorted a laugh at his daughter’s expense.
“At least I know what a tsp is,” she said shaking her head at the both of them, unable to keep an amused smile off her face now she’d stopped her eyes from watering.
-
Tom finished his meal, leaving his cutlery paired together on his plate, “That was lovely, sweetheart,” he commented, drinking the remains of his wine, “Not drinking, Gwen?” he asked, only just noticing her lack of wine glass.
“No,” she admitted, finishing her meal as Arthur too put his cutlery down. She caught his eye and he nodded, it was now or never, “Actually, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Not drinking?”
“Why I’m not drinking tonight, or any other night until about Christmas,” she confessed. Tom narrowed his eyes are her, looking between the pair of them and back to his daughter, “I’m pregnant.”
“You’re-? I’m going to be a grandparent?” He smiled. Arthur visibly relaxed.
“You’re not mad?”
“Gwen, darling, I’ve never seen you smile the way he makes you smile,” he paused, his brow furrowing slightly as he looked between them again, “How long did you say you’d been together for?”
“I didn’t,” Gwen replied, looking to Arthur for help.
“We’ve only been romantically involved for five weeks, but I have known her through my sister for ten years. I’ve been in love with your daughter for a day less than that,” Gwen bit her lip, feeling the heat go to her cheeks.
“And you’re how many weeks pregnant?”
“Thirteen weeks,” Gwen said bleakly, looking into her drink.
“But it is your child?” Tom asked Arthur, looking confused more than angry.
“Yes Dad. It’s all a bit messed up, but it’s worked out.”
“Okay,” he said considering it for a second, “Okay. I told you I would always support your decisions and now that’s being tested I’m going to stick by it. You’re happy, who am I to question it.”
-
Arthur cleared away the plates after dinner, leaving Tom with her daughter. The older male moved his chair around the table to sit next her, pulling Gwen in for a hug.
“You’re sure you’re okay with this?” Gwen asked him, resting her head on his shoulder.
“It’s not an ideal situation, but it’s not the worst it could be,” he ran his hand up her arm, pulling her in as close as he could comfortably within the confines of the chair, “You know, pregnant was one of my scenarios. It was the only one that didn’t have me panicked into an early grave.”
“Well then, I’m glad,” she smiled, taking her head from his shoulder and shifting her chair so she could hug him properly.
“I always knew there was something about that man of yours. Whenever I picked you up from Morgana’s I could see him watching you. I always assumed it was because he fancied you,” Gwen laughed, “I guess your old dad was right.”
“I guess so,” she chortled. She felt eyes on the back of her head. Knowing Arthur would be stood in the doorway watching them, “Let’s see what’s on TV,” she suggested, freed her father from her grasp and stood. Arthur approaching the sofa drying his hands on the tea towel which he folded and placed on the coffee table.
He sat on the armchair leaving Gwen and her father to the sofa. Tom looked at him and ushered him up, “You can sit next to her, you know. I won’t assume you’re trying to bustle her away from me. And I won’t kill you for touching her.”
Arthur stood, not wanting to anger Tom in anyway, still expecting the storm that his own father would kick up.
-
“That wasn’t completely painful,” Arthur admitted having shut the door behind Tom.
“It could have been a lot worse,” Gwen admitted, leaning into her boyfriend’s gentle embraced.
“I was so worried he would string me up and leave me to bleed out,” Arthur admitted, feeling Gwen’s amused breath through the thin material of his shirt.
“He’s not that scary,” Arthur pressed a kiss to Gwen’s forehead. She smiled wearily, tired from the day.
“No,” he grinned gratefully, “Now to face the dragon.”
“Mmhmm,” she yawned, “Sleep first perhaps,” Gwen suggested closing her eyes, gradually falling asleep on her feet.
Arthur took her hand, leading her towards her bedroom, “Then sleep we shall.”
-
Gwen stood in front of the full length mirror that Arthur had in his state of the art bathroom. Profile, she lifting her shirt, resting it just below her bust, and looked.
There was a definite bulge starting to form.
Arthur was on the early shift, leaving her with a set of keys and an alarm code to set up before she left for work.
She ran her hand over the smooth skin of her stomach and lowered her shirt again. It wouldn’t be long before people started to notice. Some people, like Valerie were already giving her strange looks.
One old woman had taken her hand the day before and told her some cryptic gypsy message about moons and stars and the future revolving around love of a being yet to be. It had all been very strange but she had taken it in her stride, smiled at the kooky old lady and carried on.
Weirder still was the looks that Leon kept giving her. Like he knew something she didn’t. Of course, it was the other way around and thinking otherwise was bizarre and preposterous but there was something in the looks that that her he knew something was up.
Of all the staff - not including Merlin and Morgana - Leon was the next person she would trust with their news, not to spread it to every nurse and ward staff.
A knock at the door stirred Gwen from her modelling. She left the bathroom, shutting the door before her and opening the door.
“Hi,” Morgana greeting, pushing through into the main area, Merlin following quickly behind her, “Terry on the door let us in. Lovely man.”
“Good old Terry,” Merlin inputted, slumping down onto Arthur’s sofa.
“Hi?”
“Don’t mind us, just came to see you in your time of need and wondered if you wanted to go out for lunch,” Merlin offered his childlike grin spreading across his face.
“Aren’t you meant to be working?” Gwen asked, looking questioning between them, “Your breaks don’t coincide.”
“No, but Arth-“
“Arthur rearranged the schedule and for once in a blue moon here we are,” Morgana interrupted, shooting Merlin a warning look. So Arthur might be a little over protective and not wanting to leave Gwen on her own, it didn’t mean Gwen had to know it.
“Right,” Gwen replied sceptically, “I’ll just go and finish getting dressed. Help yourselves.” Gwen left them in the main room.
“He’s right,” she heard Merlin say; “She’s getting puffy.”
“Merlin!” Gwen heard a slight thud and an ‘oof’, she could practically here Morgana’s glare, “That’s not what he said. He said showing. Not puffy.”
“Well it’s true, she is kinda puffy.”
Gwen laughed to herself shaking her head as she pulled on a new shirt and a clean pair of trousers she could later wear to work.
-
Merlin stumbled over his own feet as he tried to dodge Arthur’s expensive coffee table as he lugged a box of Gwen’s belongings towards the master bedroom.
“Merlin, be careful will you.”
“I’m not going to harm your precious coffee table.”
“I was thinking more your cracked head on the laminate leaving blood stains,” he admitted casually, hauling a box of kitchen supplies onto the counter.
“Why do the girls get away with not doing this?” Merlin asked, abandoning the box by the bedroom door before he did himself any more damage.
“Because they’re at work and heavy lifting-“
“If you say ‘isn’t good for the baby’ I’ll report back to Gwen and she can hit you for me!” Arthur looked guiltily away and dodged any further scrutiny by running back out for more boxes. Merlin shook his head and walked after him, “Just because she’s succumbed to your begging doesn’t mean she’s an invalid!” he shouted down the corridor after the blonde, Arthur ignored him much to Merlin’s amusement, “And they say love is blind. More like bloody stupid.”
-
Curled into Arthur’s chest, Gwen was cocooned in their duvet, head resting above his heart gently tapping out his heartbeat absentmindedly over the covers, “Do you want to know?” she asked.
“Know what?” he said tracing patterns on her arm. This could be how he finished every day, depending on shifts, and there wasn’t anything about it that he would change.
“The babies’ gender.”
“No. I dunno. Do you?”
“I think it would be a nice surprise,” she said sleepily, cuddling into her ‘pillow’.
“Double the amount of thinking for names though.”
“Lazy,” Gwen scoffed; she hit him gently interrupting the rhythm she’d been playing out.
“I’m in charge of an Emergency Department, you-“
“Are a nurse in that department and do way more work than you,” she shifted slightly, looking up at him. She smiled playfully accepting the kiss that Arthur sent her way. He ran his fingers through her loose hair, tucking it behind her ear and resting his hand in her curls. His other hand stopped tracing patterns and held her close to him, he moved his hand beneath the covers, under her shirt and resting it on her waist, “You hands are cold,” she mumbled against his lips.
“Sorry, doctor’s curse.”
-
In a waiting room full of expecting parents, it’s easy to feel alone when you are sat on your own watching everybody else be a couple. A gentle hubbub of excitement passing through most along with nerves and a little bit of cold feet.
There were no magazines due to the swine flu epidemic so Gwen had taken to counting the ceiling tiles over and over. There was a hundred and sixty four that she could see, dozens more that she couldn’t.
The doors opened and she spotted Arthur coming towards her looking a little worse for wear in what looked like a fresh set of green scrubs over his t-shirt.
“Sorry I’m late.”
“Merlin said something about multiple GSWs between grabbing supplies and running back into the room. I thought it best to let you carry on,” she admitted, greeting him with a kiss as he sat in the seat she had saved him next to her.
“It got pretty messy but they’re going to be okay,” he reported, taking a hold of her hand, “What time is the appointment again?”
“Twenty minutes ago.”
“Ah.”
“Christina,” Arthur’s eyes narrowed at her in confusion, “The lady behind the desk, said they’re running about half an hour late.”
“Always the way. It’s so agitating being a patient in this place.”
“You’re not the patient. You’re just impatient.”
“Ha. Ha,” he sat tapping his foot. Gwen looked pointedly at him, “Sorry,” he stopped. A second later he started bouncing his knee.
“Arthur, just relax, okay.”
“I just, I’m nervous.”
“The great Arthur Pendragon admitting to nerves? Oh wait a second, yeah; a pig just flew past the window. And news reports just in; Hell has frozen over,” Gwen laughed.
“Guinevere Leodegrance?” A nurse called holding her chart in her hand, “Gwen?”
“Rachel, Hi,” the only nurse who had defected from the Emergency Room. Of course pretty much all the staff would know Arthur, especially in scrubs, but not many of the nurses in other departments knew Gwen, but now, now it was sure to spread like wildfire that the Head of the Emergency Department and his girlfriend were expecting a child. Professionalism went out of the window when it was about people you worked with, “Arthur, Rachel. Rachel, Arthur. She worked in emergency a couple of years back.”
“I remember,” he smiled, shaking the hand that the nurse offered, the look on his face unreadable to whether he was lying or not, “Nice to see you again.”
“You too. Ready?” They followed her into the exam room, “The doctor will be with you shortly.”
“Okay, thank you,” Gwen smiled. She sat up on the bed, leg dangling over the side, “You don’t need to look so nervous.”
“It’s just bewildering,” he admitted. Gwen held out her hand to him, clutching onto his fingers.
“It’s weird, but at the same time, kind of beautiful.”
“How could any part of you not be?” He said seriously before both of them laughed. He touched his lips to hers briefly. The butterflies in his stomach still battled at full force.
“Good afternoon,” Doreen chimed as she came in, smiling broadly at the pair of them, “Dr Pendragon, nice to see you. Gwen.”
“Nice to meet you,” Arthur held out his hand to shake the other doctor’s. She openly accepted it taking his bigger hand with a firm grip.
“You too. If you want to lay back, Gwen, and lift your shirt,” she smiled warmly, watching Gwen scoot up the bed, laying back. She lifted the bottom of her t-shirt revealing her ever-growing baby bump, “Okay there’s going to be a cool sensation from the gel, as before.”
The machine burst into life, whooshing sounds filled the room followed by a constant beat, “That’s your babies’ heart beat,” Doreen stated, “Head, two arms, two legs,” she rattled off some more information, taking some protocol measurements of the baby to make sure everything was in check.
Gwen took her eyes from the screen to look up at Arthur who had become quiet, seated next to her. She reached over the side of the bed, taking one of his hands from his lap and giving it a gentle squeeze. His eyes were fixed on the screen, watching every movement the doctor made. A content smile on his face.
“Would you like to know the sex?”
Gwen looked at Arthur for a nod of reassurance before she answered; “We want to keep it as a surprise.”
“Okay,” the doctor smiled. She tapped a few more buttons and reached down beside the ultrasound machine, “here.”
She passed Arthur the print out. All he could manage was a dazed smile, looking at the photo in his hands, “Thank you,” Gwen said for him, accepting the tissue the female doctor passed her, “Thanks,” she wiped the gel from her stomach, replacing her shirt, “You okay, Arthur?”
“What?” he looked up from the photo, “Yeah, I’m fine. She’s, he’s, not so blobby anymore.”
“Guess not, huh?” Gwen pushed herself off of the bed, “She/he is sucking their thumb, look,” she pointed at the image. Arthur squinted and smiled.
“Yeah,” he kissed Gwen on the forehead, putting his arm around her waist, “Thank you, Doctor?”
“Doreen, Doreen Winters.”
“Thank you, Doreen.”
“Just doing my job. You’re okay for booking your next appointments?”
“Yes, thank you,” Gwen smiled, “Rachel won’t tell anyone we were here, will she?”
“Rachel won’t no. But from word on the grapevine, she wouldn’t need to. Might want to nip it in the bud before people completely over do the story,” Doreen offered with a smile, “Now scram, I’ve got patients to see and time to make up.”
“Thank you.”
-
“So how do you suppose we tell them then?”
“Give Merlin a megaphone and set him up a stand? I don’t know,” Gwen shrugged. The music in the lift was starting to get annoying; they only had four floors to go.
“I just don’t want to keep repeating myself.”
“Me either.”
They stood in silence until the doors pinged open, “Got it.”
He reached into his pocket, bringing out the sonogram picture, heading directly to the reception desk. He pulled open one of the desk draws searching through the miscellaneous stationary.
“What are you looking for?” Merlin asked, adding a completed chart to the pile and looking down at Arthur.
“Blu tack.”
“Bottom draw, right hand side,” Merlin answered. Arthur followed his instructions and was soon pulling off a generous piece of the tack.
“Arthur?” Gwen caught up with him, holding her jacket in front of her not being on shift to have baggy scrubs to hide behind.
Arthur stood; he attached the blob of blu tack to the back of the sonogram and placed it on the patient whiteboard on the wall behind the desk. He picked up one of the pens, uncapped it and started to scribble a caption beneath it. Once done, he replaced the cap and abandoned the pen with the others.
“There. Costa?” he asked Gwen. He stood between her and his masterpiece. She frowned and leant sideways to see what he’d done. Beneath the picture read ‘Baby Leodegrance-Pendragon. Aged 16 Weeks.’ She couldn’t help but smile. She shook her head, holding her jacket to her side.
“Costa,” she agreed. He took her head as they headed for the exit, missing the mixture of emotions that passed over various people’s faces. Merlin was amused and carried on with his work. Leon looked unsurprised and smiled off the news. Other’s heralded a mixture of shocked, pleased and a couple of the more traditionalist staff amounts them, mixed glares and disapproval.
| Next Part |
Authors: mydoctortennant
Pairings: Arthur/Gwen, Merlin/Morgana
Warnings: None for this chapter.
Disclaimer: Not real. Despite birthday wishes and night time prayers to Santa (all Hail Amy Pond!) Merlin still isn't mine!
Rating: And with this chaper it jumps up to MA-15
Summary: Sometimes relationships just don't work in order. Or so they find out when one mistake leads to a life altering experience.
Author Notes: For the lovely noodlesishere; this is a modern AU based loosely off of the Abby/Luka storyline in ER series 12/13. Some medical info I have taken from ER, so it's totally their fault if it's wrong! Other stuff I researched myself, which may not be 100% correct but I tried my hardest =]
Also; totally OUT of my comfort zone with this, so I worked extra hard. Hope it pays off.
Thanks to mustbethursday3 for reading over it for me (and suggesting Costa should sponser me for mentioning it so much XD) and purely_distel for the name =]
My Merlin Prompts Table
| Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Part Four
Gwen didn’t wait around for Arthur at the end of her shift; instead she headed into the nearest Tesco express to pick up the groceries for dinner. She’d already ordered Merlin out of the flat until gone ten so she could break the news to her father without the other nurse doing it for her.
She loved Merlin dearly, she did, but there were some skills he didn’t possess.
Once she’d bought the groceries she required, she headed back to the hospital in time for Arthur to finish; “Ready to go?” she asked resting the shopping bags on the desk. She leant over it to see what case he’d had; little old lady had fallen and broken her arm. Poor woman.
“Let me just sign off on this,” he did so, passing the chart back to one of the less senior doctors who took it without debate, “And we’re good to go,” he picked up the shopping bag that Gwen had left in one hand, picking up his bag and jacket in the other.
“I can carry that,” Gwen said, reaching for the Tesco bag only to have Arthur whip it out of her grasp.
“What sort of guy would I be if I made my pregnant girlfriend carry the shopping?” He stopped for a second, putting all the bags down on the floor to pull his jacket on over the scrub top he’d acquired over the shift.
“It’s not that heavy,” she reasoned as the automatic doors of the hospital closed behind them. She made to pick the bag up again but Arthur got there first, “Ready for this?”
“No. You?”
“No,” Arthur swung his work bag onto his back, freeing up his hand to take Gwen’s, interlocking her fingers with his as they walked towards the tube station. The grip he had serving to give some reassurance that he would make it through the night alive and in one piece.
-
“Hi, Mr Leodegrance? Come on in,” Gwen heard Arthur greet as she continued to prepare dinner. The vegetables were ready, the lamb she’d had in the freezer was cooked to near perfection and to top it all off she’d gotten her father’s favourite wine to butter him up.
“Please call me Tom, Arthur.”
“Tom, it’s nice to meet you,” he held out his hand to shake Tom’s, the older man accepting the gesture with a welcoming hand.
“You too, Arthur,” So far so good, Gwen thought to herself lifting the lid on the boiling vegetable pan to stop it from boiling over.
“Gwen’s in the kitchen,” Arthur offered as he lead Tom down the hallway into the small kitchen, “I’ll go set the table,” he said, grabbing three lots of cutlery from the draw and disappearing into the lounge come dinning room.
“He seems nice,” Tom said as he pulled Gwen into a hug. She abandoned the cooking for a second to indulge him. It had been too long since she’d seen him and doing so now made her realise how much she missed him. He didn’t live to far away, but with her schedule and everything that had been going on recently she’d not found the time to set aside to see him.
“He’s more than nice, Dad,” Gwen laughed, squeezing her father as the alarm beeped on the oven, “Oh, just in time. I’ll just dish up, if you want to go and sit at the table?”
“Okay, pumpkin,” he kissed the top of her head and released her, leaving her with three hot plates and a lamb roast to serve.
-
“This smells fantastic, sweetheart,” Tom applauded as Gwen put his plate down in front of him, “Really amazing.”
“Looks good too,” Arthur said, bringing in his own plate from the kitchen and sitting at the table. He flashed Gwen a look, smirking slightly. Gwen rolled her eyes and sat herself opposite Arthur, her Dad facing them both from the other side.
“Well then I hope it tastes as good.”
“You know,” Tom said as he started to cut into his lamb and paiing it with some vegetables, “I have no idea where she gets her culinary skills from,” he admitted, tasting the cuisine and hummed satisfactorily, “Certainly doesn’t get it from me.”
“I’m a complete disaster in the kitchen,” Arthur added, running a potato around in his gravy with a smile in Gwen’s direction.
“He asked me was a tsp was,” Gwen said, assuming the answer obvious.
Tom looked at her with mock confusion, “A tsp?” he laughed, “Oh dear,” he looked at Arthur, mirth in his eyes and laughed again.
Arthur felt at ease as he happily stuffed himself with the meal Gwen had slaved over, “It’s not something that comes naturally.”
“What else are women for, eh?” Tom jested, “Cooking and birthing children,” Gwen choked on the piece of meat she had just put in her mouth. She coughed slightly, chewed and swallowed as she picked up her glass of water and drink some, “You alright, darling?”
“Yeah, fine. Just went down the wrong way.”
“That’s what you get when you try and breathe and eat at the same time,” Arthur teased. To his surprise Tom also snorted a laugh at his daughter’s expense.
“At least I know what a tsp is,” she said shaking her head at the both of them, unable to keep an amused smile off her face now she’d stopped her eyes from watering.
-
Tom finished his meal, leaving his cutlery paired together on his plate, “That was lovely, sweetheart,” he commented, drinking the remains of his wine, “Not drinking, Gwen?” he asked, only just noticing her lack of wine glass.
“No,” she admitted, finishing her meal as Arthur too put his cutlery down. She caught his eye and he nodded, it was now or never, “Actually, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Not drinking?”
“Why I’m not drinking tonight, or any other night until about Christmas,” she confessed. Tom narrowed his eyes are her, looking between the pair of them and back to his daughter, “I’m pregnant.”
“You’re-? I’m going to be a grandparent?” He smiled. Arthur visibly relaxed.
“You’re not mad?”
“Gwen, darling, I’ve never seen you smile the way he makes you smile,” he paused, his brow furrowing slightly as he looked between them again, “How long did you say you’d been together for?”
“I didn’t,” Gwen replied, looking to Arthur for help.
“We’ve only been romantically involved for five weeks, but I have known her through my sister for ten years. I’ve been in love with your daughter for a day less than that,” Gwen bit her lip, feeling the heat go to her cheeks.
“And you’re how many weeks pregnant?”
“Thirteen weeks,” Gwen said bleakly, looking into her drink.
“But it is your child?” Tom asked Arthur, looking confused more than angry.
“Yes Dad. It’s all a bit messed up, but it’s worked out.”
“Okay,” he said considering it for a second, “Okay. I told you I would always support your decisions and now that’s being tested I’m going to stick by it. You’re happy, who am I to question it.”
-
Arthur cleared away the plates after dinner, leaving Tom with her daughter. The older male moved his chair around the table to sit next her, pulling Gwen in for a hug.
“You’re sure you’re okay with this?” Gwen asked him, resting her head on his shoulder.
“It’s not an ideal situation, but it’s not the worst it could be,” he ran his hand up her arm, pulling her in as close as he could comfortably within the confines of the chair, “You know, pregnant was one of my scenarios. It was the only one that didn’t have me panicked into an early grave.”
“Well then, I’m glad,” she smiled, taking her head from his shoulder and shifting her chair so she could hug him properly.
“I always knew there was something about that man of yours. Whenever I picked you up from Morgana’s I could see him watching you. I always assumed it was because he fancied you,” Gwen laughed, “I guess your old dad was right.”
“I guess so,” she chortled. She felt eyes on the back of her head. Knowing Arthur would be stood in the doorway watching them, “Let’s see what’s on TV,” she suggested, freed her father from her grasp and stood. Arthur approaching the sofa drying his hands on the tea towel which he folded and placed on the coffee table.
He sat on the armchair leaving Gwen and her father to the sofa. Tom looked at him and ushered him up, “You can sit next to her, you know. I won’t assume you’re trying to bustle her away from me. And I won’t kill you for touching her.”
Arthur stood, not wanting to anger Tom in anyway, still expecting the storm that his own father would kick up.
-
“That wasn’t completely painful,” Arthur admitted having shut the door behind Tom.
“It could have been a lot worse,” Gwen admitted, leaning into her boyfriend’s gentle embraced.
“I was so worried he would string me up and leave me to bleed out,” Arthur admitted, feeling Gwen’s amused breath through the thin material of his shirt.
“He’s not that scary,” Arthur pressed a kiss to Gwen’s forehead. She smiled wearily, tired from the day.
“No,” he grinned gratefully, “Now to face the dragon.”
“Mmhmm,” she yawned, “Sleep first perhaps,” Gwen suggested closing her eyes, gradually falling asleep on her feet.
Arthur took her hand, leading her towards her bedroom, “Then sleep we shall.”
-
Gwen stood in front of the full length mirror that Arthur had in his state of the art bathroom. Profile, she lifting her shirt, resting it just below her bust, and looked.
There was a definite bulge starting to form.
Arthur was on the early shift, leaving her with a set of keys and an alarm code to set up before she left for work.
She ran her hand over the smooth skin of her stomach and lowered her shirt again. It wouldn’t be long before people started to notice. Some people, like Valerie were already giving her strange looks.
One old woman had taken her hand the day before and told her some cryptic gypsy message about moons and stars and the future revolving around love of a being yet to be. It had all been very strange but she had taken it in her stride, smiled at the kooky old lady and carried on.
Weirder still was the looks that Leon kept giving her. Like he knew something she didn’t. Of course, it was the other way around and thinking otherwise was bizarre and preposterous but there was something in the looks that that her he knew something was up.
Of all the staff - not including Merlin and Morgana - Leon was the next person she would trust with their news, not to spread it to every nurse and ward staff.
A knock at the door stirred Gwen from her modelling. She left the bathroom, shutting the door before her and opening the door.
“Hi,” Morgana greeting, pushing through into the main area, Merlin following quickly behind her, “Terry on the door let us in. Lovely man.”
“Good old Terry,” Merlin inputted, slumping down onto Arthur’s sofa.
“Hi?”
“Don’t mind us, just came to see you in your time of need and wondered if you wanted to go out for lunch,” Merlin offered his childlike grin spreading across his face.
“Aren’t you meant to be working?” Gwen asked, looking questioning between them, “Your breaks don’t coincide.”
“No, but Arth-“
“Arthur rearranged the schedule and for once in a blue moon here we are,” Morgana interrupted, shooting Merlin a warning look. So Arthur might be a little over protective and not wanting to leave Gwen on her own, it didn’t mean Gwen had to know it.
“Right,” Gwen replied sceptically, “I’ll just go and finish getting dressed. Help yourselves.” Gwen left them in the main room.
“He’s right,” she heard Merlin say; “She’s getting puffy.”
“Merlin!” Gwen heard a slight thud and an ‘oof’, she could practically here Morgana’s glare, “That’s not what he said. He said showing. Not puffy.”
“Well it’s true, she is kinda puffy.”
Gwen laughed to herself shaking her head as she pulled on a new shirt and a clean pair of trousers she could later wear to work.
-
Merlin stumbled over his own feet as he tried to dodge Arthur’s expensive coffee table as he lugged a box of Gwen’s belongings towards the master bedroom.
“Merlin, be careful will you.”
“I’m not going to harm your precious coffee table.”
“I was thinking more your cracked head on the laminate leaving blood stains,” he admitted casually, hauling a box of kitchen supplies onto the counter.
“Why do the girls get away with not doing this?” Merlin asked, abandoning the box by the bedroom door before he did himself any more damage.
“Because they’re at work and heavy lifting-“
“If you say ‘isn’t good for the baby’ I’ll report back to Gwen and she can hit you for me!” Arthur looked guiltily away and dodged any further scrutiny by running back out for more boxes. Merlin shook his head and walked after him, “Just because she’s succumbed to your begging doesn’t mean she’s an invalid!” he shouted down the corridor after the blonde, Arthur ignored him much to Merlin’s amusement, “And they say love is blind. More like bloody stupid.”
-
Curled into Arthur’s chest, Gwen was cocooned in their duvet, head resting above his heart gently tapping out his heartbeat absentmindedly over the covers, “Do you want to know?” she asked.
“Know what?” he said tracing patterns on her arm. This could be how he finished every day, depending on shifts, and there wasn’t anything about it that he would change.
“The babies’ gender.”
“No. I dunno. Do you?”
“I think it would be a nice surprise,” she said sleepily, cuddling into her ‘pillow’.
“Double the amount of thinking for names though.”
“Lazy,” Gwen scoffed; she hit him gently interrupting the rhythm she’d been playing out.
“I’m in charge of an Emergency Department, you-“
“Are a nurse in that department and do way more work than you,” she shifted slightly, looking up at him. She smiled playfully accepting the kiss that Arthur sent her way. He ran his fingers through her loose hair, tucking it behind her ear and resting his hand in her curls. His other hand stopped tracing patterns and held her close to him, he moved his hand beneath the covers, under her shirt and resting it on her waist, “You hands are cold,” she mumbled against his lips.
“Sorry, doctor’s curse.”
-
In a waiting room full of expecting parents, it’s easy to feel alone when you are sat on your own watching everybody else be a couple. A gentle hubbub of excitement passing through most along with nerves and a little bit of cold feet.
There were no magazines due to the swine flu epidemic so Gwen had taken to counting the ceiling tiles over and over. There was a hundred and sixty four that she could see, dozens more that she couldn’t.
The doors opened and she spotted Arthur coming towards her looking a little worse for wear in what looked like a fresh set of green scrubs over his t-shirt.
“Sorry I’m late.”
“Merlin said something about multiple GSWs between grabbing supplies and running back into the room. I thought it best to let you carry on,” she admitted, greeting him with a kiss as he sat in the seat she had saved him next to her.
“It got pretty messy but they’re going to be okay,” he reported, taking a hold of her hand, “What time is the appointment again?”
“Twenty minutes ago.”
“Ah.”
“Christina,” Arthur’s eyes narrowed at her in confusion, “The lady behind the desk, said they’re running about half an hour late.”
“Always the way. It’s so agitating being a patient in this place.”
“You’re not the patient. You’re just impatient.”
“Ha. Ha,” he sat tapping his foot. Gwen looked pointedly at him, “Sorry,” he stopped. A second later he started bouncing his knee.
“Arthur, just relax, okay.”
“I just, I’m nervous.”
“The great Arthur Pendragon admitting to nerves? Oh wait a second, yeah; a pig just flew past the window. And news reports just in; Hell has frozen over,” Gwen laughed.
“Guinevere Leodegrance?” A nurse called holding her chart in her hand, “Gwen?”
“Rachel, Hi,” the only nurse who had defected from the Emergency Room. Of course pretty much all the staff would know Arthur, especially in scrubs, but not many of the nurses in other departments knew Gwen, but now, now it was sure to spread like wildfire that the Head of the Emergency Department and his girlfriend were expecting a child. Professionalism went out of the window when it was about people you worked with, “Arthur, Rachel. Rachel, Arthur. She worked in emergency a couple of years back.”
“I remember,” he smiled, shaking the hand that the nurse offered, the look on his face unreadable to whether he was lying or not, “Nice to see you again.”
“You too. Ready?” They followed her into the exam room, “The doctor will be with you shortly.”
“Okay, thank you,” Gwen smiled. She sat up on the bed, leg dangling over the side, “You don’t need to look so nervous.”
“It’s just bewildering,” he admitted. Gwen held out her hand to him, clutching onto his fingers.
“It’s weird, but at the same time, kind of beautiful.”
“How could any part of you not be?” He said seriously before both of them laughed. He touched his lips to hers briefly. The butterflies in his stomach still battled at full force.
“Good afternoon,” Doreen chimed as she came in, smiling broadly at the pair of them, “Dr Pendragon, nice to see you. Gwen.”
“Nice to meet you,” Arthur held out his hand to shake the other doctor’s. She openly accepted it taking his bigger hand with a firm grip.
“You too. If you want to lay back, Gwen, and lift your shirt,” she smiled warmly, watching Gwen scoot up the bed, laying back. She lifted the bottom of her t-shirt revealing her ever-growing baby bump, “Okay there’s going to be a cool sensation from the gel, as before.”
The machine burst into life, whooshing sounds filled the room followed by a constant beat, “That’s your babies’ heart beat,” Doreen stated, “Head, two arms, two legs,” she rattled off some more information, taking some protocol measurements of the baby to make sure everything was in check.
Gwen took her eyes from the screen to look up at Arthur who had become quiet, seated next to her. She reached over the side of the bed, taking one of his hands from his lap and giving it a gentle squeeze. His eyes were fixed on the screen, watching every movement the doctor made. A content smile on his face.
“Would you like to know the sex?”
Gwen looked at Arthur for a nod of reassurance before she answered; “We want to keep it as a surprise.”
“Okay,” the doctor smiled. She tapped a few more buttons and reached down beside the ultrasound machine, “here.”
She passed Arthur the print out. All he could manage was a dazed smile, looking at the photo in his hands, “Thank you,” Gwen said for him, accepting the tissue the female doctor passed her, “Thanks,” she wiped the gel from her stomach, replacing her shirt, “You okay, Arthur?”
“What?” he looked up from the photo, “Yeah, I’m fine. She’s, he’s, not so blobby anymore.”
“Guess not, huh?” Gwen pushed herself off of the bed, “She/he is sucking their thumb, look,” she pointed at the image. Arthur squinted and smiled.
“Yeah,” he kissed Gwen on the forehead, putting his arm around her waist, “Thank you, Doctor?”
“Doreen, Doreen Winters.”
“Thank you, Doreen.”
“Just doing my job. You’re okay for booking your next appointments?”
“Yes, thank you,” Gwen smiled, “Rachel won’t tell anyone we were here, will she?”
“Rachel won’t no. But from word on the grapevine, she wouldn’t need to. Might want to nip it in the bud before people completely over do the story,” Doreen offered with a smile, “Now scram, I’ve got patients to see and time to make up.”
“Thank you.”
-
“So how do you suppose we tell them then?”
“Give Merlin a megaphone and set him up a stand? I don’t know,” Gwen shrugged. The music in the lift was starting to get annoying; they only had four floors to go.
“I just don’t want to keep repeating myself.”
“Me either.”
They stood in silence until the doors pinged open, “Got it.”
He reached into his pocket, bringing out the sonogram picture, heading directly to the reception desk. He pulled open one of the desk draws searching through the miscellaneous stationary.
“What are you looking for?” Merlin asked, adding a completed chart to the pile and looking down at Arthur.
“Blu tack.”
“Bottom draw, right hand side,” Merlin answered. Arthur followed his instructions and was soon pulling off a generous piece of the tack.
“Arthur?” Gwen caught up with him, holding her jacket in front of her not being on shift to have baggy scrubs to hide behind.
Arthur stood; he attached the blob of blu tack to the back of the sonogram and placed it on the patient whiteboard on the wall behind the desk. He picked up one of the pens, uncapped it and started to scribble a caption beneath it. Once done, he replaced the cap and abandoned the pen with the others.
“There. Costa?” he asked Gwen. He stood between her and his masterpiece. She frowned and leant sideways to see what he’d done. Beneath the picture read ‘Baby Leodegrance-Pendragon. Aged 16 Weeks.’ She couldn’t help but smile. She shook her head, holding her jacket to her side.
“Costa,” she agreed. He took her head as they headed for the exit, missing the mixture of emotions that passed over various people’s faces. Merlin was amused and carried on with his work. Leon looked unsurprised and smiled off the news. Other’s heralded a mixture of shocked, pleased and a couple of the more traditionalist staff amounts them, mixed glares and disapproval.
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